Madison Keys Racquet – Player Profile

Updated 25 January 2025
After a difficult 2024 season, Madison Key is once again back among the top WTA players. Let’s find out a bit more about Keys and also what gear and racquet she is using.

Madison Keys Tennis Racquet

Madison Keys has made some significant changes to her gear setup in recent times. She came onto the scene using the Wilson Ultra Pro (H19 mold), moved on to the Blade Pro (H22 mold). She was playing a gut hybrid with Alu Power in the mains in an 18/20 pattern until late 2024, when she changed to a Blade Pro 16/19 with a full bed of Luxilon Alu Power. This change did not last long because she rocked up to the 2025 WTA season with a blacked-out Yonex racquet strung with Yonex Poly Tour Rev in lavender.

And what a start to the season she has had! First winning the Adelaide WTA 250 and then her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open 2025.

The blacked-out racquet has a blue grommet, which signals that it is the latest Yonex Ezone 98. If you check out her player profile page on Tennis Warehouse, you can see that she is also endorsing this racquet with the Poly Tour Rev string.

Sometimes, a racquet change helps ignite a new fire into a player. But this was a part of mental adjustment she worked on together with her coach and husband, Bjorn Fratangelo. The below text is quoted from the official WTA website article.

In 16 seasons as a professional, Madison Keys had carved out a successful career in tennis. She won nearly 300 matches, almost $20 million in prize money and settled into a comfortable spot as a Top 20 player.

The only thing missing over the years was a Grand Slam title, something her exceptional gifts once suggested was not only possible — but probable. That began, Keys said, when she was 11.

Early last year, as her relationship with Bjorn Fratangelo deepened, they began to seriously discuss her future. Fratangelo — destined to become her husband and coach — wondered this aloud:

When is good enough not good enough?

“It was just kind of like how much do you want to get out of this?” Fratangelo told reporters ahead of the Australian Open final. “Are you happy with staying 11 through 25? Do you want to try to push for more? What do you want?”

Keys, who turns 30 next month, decided she wanted more. 

And so, the two set about making some dramatic technical changes — her racquet, strings and serving motion. The biggest modification, though, was internal. In the past, wanting it so badly, she had shrunk in the critical-mass moments. Now Keys, cutting through all that scar tissue, said she was “just going to go for it and see what happens.”

More on Madison Keys

The early years and playing style

Madison Keys turned pro at the age of 14 already and was a decent junior’s player, ranked as high as No. 16 in the world. Originally from Illinois, her family moved to Florida early, so that Madison could train at the Evert tennis academy in Boca Raton. With her early pro tour debut and success, she quickly became a rising star and regarded as one of the successors of Serena Williams in the U.S. In 2013, she ended the season inside of the top 50 for the first time, at only 18 years of age. 

The early success was mainly due to her powerful playing style, as she is able to hit heavy serves and groundstrokes off both wings. She mainly stays at the baseline, building points from there with aggressive play, rather than attacking the net. In this style, she fits perfectly into the modern WTA game, which rarely sees a lot of variation aside from baseline play. But Keys can just hit harder than most players, sometimes even beating average speeds of men and putting her opponents under an immense amount of pressure.

Rise to her career high ranking

The further career path of Keys was seen to be rising only, as she won her first career title in 2014 on grass in Eastbourne. But her results were up-and-down as well, with a year-end ranking of No. 31, just slightly improved from 2013. In the 2014/15 off-season, she added a new coaching team, including former World No. 1 Lindsey Davenport and it paid dividends going forward. That season, Keys reached her first Slam semifinal in Australia, where she played Serena Williams and lost in a tight encounter. Even though she could not keep the exact level for the remainder of the year, she finished inside the top 20 for the first time in her career. 

With another new coach, Keys excelled in 2016 as she played a lot more consistent, even though she only reached the fourth round in every Grand Slam. But she was able to rack up her second career title, reach two Masters finals and qualify for the year-end WTA finals. She ended the year ranked No. 8 but had previously recorded a career high ranking of No.7, which everyone at this point might have thought to be just the beginning.

Mixed results and injury struggles

All this had happened with an existing injury to her left, non-dominant wrist, which she had sustained during the 2016 season but no repaired, since she was able to qualify for the finals. Keys had surgery before the 2017 season and was unable to play in Australia and therefor was only able to play an incomplete season, starting in Indian Wells. After a mediocre season, she started the US Open as the No. 15 seed and reached her maiden major final, the only one to date.

This trend of up-and-down results turned out to be a constant pattern for Madison Keys ever since unfortunately, with Grand Slam semifinals being followed by upsets or nagging injuries quite frequently, leading to rankings between 20 and 10 in most years. After six consecutive years within the top 20, she dropped out of the top 50 in 2021, after the Covid limitations and mixed results with only 11 wins in total made her lose a large part of her ranking points. She bounced back with a 2022 Australian Open semifinal and won a total of 8 title until the end of the 2024 season, all while consistently being within the top 20 again.

Is 2025 finally her year?

For Madison Keys, the struggles cannot be associated with one big injury or event, but rather with missing consistency and nagging injuries here and there. Either way, she wasn’t able to fulfil the potential and expectations of many, that were put on her shoulders. In 2025, she started as the year in the top 20 again and played a very good level from the beginning. Reaching the quarterfinals in Auckland, she went on to win the Adelaide International with victories over multiple top players en route. Add in her current streak at the Australian Open, she is standing at a 11-1 record for the year and just one win away from re-entering the top 10.

If she is able to get past Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, she would either play her fellow American Emma Navarro or Iga Swiatek for the finals. Either way, there is a lot of talent in between Madison Keys and a chance at her first Gand Slam, but the 29-year-old might be just in shape to finally contend for the title again. With the younger generation of Swiatek, Sabalenka and Gauff now already in their prime, it might be time for Keys to take that final step. Her mid-term success will mostly be determined by her health and consistency, as her game does not lack much for a top 5 debut. In my eyes, she could make her debut in the very top of the rankings, as well as holding up a trophy this year?

By the way, Madison Keys changed from Wilson to a new Yonex Ezone setup this year, another sign that she is looking to take those final steps of improvement. It looks like she is using an Ezone 98 now, one of the most used frames on tour, including WTA stars such as Naomi Osaka. She switched from an Ultra Pro or Wilson H19 to a Wilson H22 last year, which is significantly less powerful than the Ezone still, so it looks like she wanted even more power. Let’s see how her new racket will help her in the Australian Open and ongoing season.